Today's News

We are confronted this week with a beautiful native species, one that really is a bit mysterious. It is a perennial herb commonly seen in gardens, maybe even yours. It is known historically, and in natural environments, only from the southeastern USA, from South Carolina west to Louisiana. This species is unmistakable. It is an obvious member of the sunflower family and is blooming now.

Preserving food really isn’t a practice that is going out of style. With the growing focus on local and homegrown food, many people want to preserve the fruits and vegetables of summer for later use.

If you’re an old hand at preserving or are thinking of giving it a try for the first time this year, here’s a quiz to see if you’re on the right track. Answers if you think these statements about food preservation are true or false.

Denominations, which use the Revised Common Lectionary, have reached the end of a long, post-Easter cycle of readings from the Johannine community. Among the many questions posed by John’s followers is one that echoes through the ages: “Do you love me?” is the divine, age-old, everlasting, soulful question presented to Simon Peter by Jesus.

When you think of Southern food, you think about home cooking and comfort food –– Creole, Cajun, Carolina Lowcountry, soul food and even Tex-Mex. These foods include an abundance of fresh vegetables, rice and/or corn, inexpensive cuts of meat (usually pork or chicken) and, of course, fresh seafood.

My two-year anniversary at the helm of the Beacon newsroom was two weeks ago. With it came a renewed sense of pride in all we have accomplished as a newspaper thanks entirely to our small but mighty staff, coworkers who I’m fortunate to call friends.

The services of SHIIP, the Seniors’ Health Insurance Program of the North Carolina Department of Insurance, are not only for people 65 and older. SHIIP also provides free counseling about Medicare to people on Medicare because of a disability.

Before you can receive Medicare because of a disability, you must apply, be approved and have received Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) for a period of time.

As the campaign to preserve the Battleship North Carolina as the state’s memorial to its World War II veterans continues to make significant progress, efforts to establish an all-inclusive monument for our military servicemen and –women in Brunswick County deserve our recognition and support.

A Riegelwood man is accused of breaking into a Leland residence and raping a woman sometime between 4:15 and 4:30 a.m. Monday, July 13.

Twenty-two-year-old Jeffrey Michael Nelson, of General Howe Road, was arrested in Wilmington late Monday night after investigators received a tip on his whereabouts, according to a Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office news release.

Nelson, who was charged with second-degree rape, kidnapping and first-degree burglary, is incarcerated at the Brunswick County Detention Facility on $500,000 bail.

Agents with the Brunswick County Sheriff’s Office Drug Enforcement Unit arrested a trio of men in separate drug cases Thursday, July 9.

Fifty-four-year-old Lester Clifton Benton, of Leland, was arrested and charged with trafficking opium or heroin, possession with intent to manufacture, sell and deliver a schedule III controlled substance and selling and delivering a schedule III controlled substance.